Religious life in the United States has undergone a remarkable decline in the United States in the past 50 years, with once-dominant communities experiencing a dearth in new vocations and an average age well into the twilight years.

Cardinal John O’Connor of New York canonically established the community with four sisters on Feb. 9, 1997; today, there are 120 sisters whose average age is 29. Their apostolate is Catholic teaching; they operate the Spiritus Sanctus Academies in Michigan and teach in Catholic schools in Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Texas. The sisters have been twice featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show and once on The American Bible Challenge.

The Register recently spoke with Dominican Sister Joseph Andrew Bogdanowicz, one of the original founding sisters and vocation director for the community.

How did you become a religious, and how did your community begin?

I’m from Tennessee. I was blessed with saintly parents and taught by sisters, so I had the best of both worlds. I entered religious life after high school, becoming a Dominican.

Four of us in the community believed God was calling us to found a new community. Mother Assumpta [who was previously the superior of the Nashville Dominicans] was good friends with Cardinal John O’Connor of New York, and he agreed to canonically establish us.

Tom Monaghan, the great Catholic philanthropist, heard about our new community. We’re a teaching community, and Tom wanted to build Catholic schools. He invited us to Ann Arbor, Mich. [Monaghan is from Ann Arbor], and after much prayer and consultation between our bishop in New York and the bishop of Lansing, we moved.

As a vocation director, I thought the move would prove itself a good idea if vocations came. Sure enough, the day after we arrived in Ann Arbor, a young woman came to our door asking about joining us.

It just shows that you have to pray, put yourself in the hands of the Lord and trust him.

Do you receive many requests from bishops to teach in their schools?

We’re constantly getting requests. Mother Assumpta has 350 on her desk right now.

We choose where to go based on the sisters we have available and the ability of our sisters to live our consecrated life in the diocese. We send out our sisters in groups of at least four. They teach grades K-12 in different schools but live in one convent.

We’re always praying and asking the Holy Spirit how to best use us.

What fruits have you seen in your teaching apostolate?

We like to think every single child we teach is a fruit and that each has been positively impacted in his relationship with God. Ours is a holistic approach, touching mind, body and soul. We seek to put a Catholic culture in our schools.

Where do your vocations come from?

They come from every kind of family from all over the U.S. and Canada. The call comes from God, and the woman has to realize it or at least be open to it.

We have three vocation retreats a year, which last 24 hours each. We tell our young women to bring a sleeping bag, a rosary and a wide open heart for Jesus and Mary to fill.

Each retreat, we have to turn women away because we can only accommodate 180 at a time. Sometimes groups come from colleges; we had a recent group of 25 women from one college.

While on retreat, many women realize that their vocation is marriage. For others, it’s the single life or a missionary vocation. If they believe they have a religious vocation, we try to direct them to the right community, whether it is ours or another one.

What “growing pains” have you experienced with such rapid growth?

We cannot build fast enough to accommodate all our vocations! We’ve filled our motherhouse, and we’re looking for more space to build. The people have been generous, but we need more financial resources so we can continue to build as well as provide for the other needs of our sisters. God is sending us incredible women, but we have to feed, clothe and educate them.

What has made your religious community successful in attracting vocations?

I could point to many reasons. God blesses authenticity. We live out our religious life according to what our understanding is of what the Church asks from us. We strive to be faithful to the charism of our founders. We know it, and we live it as a community.

We have a close community life. We genuinely love our sisters. A woman’s heart is made to be a part of a family, and the community has to be the sister’s family.

We have a future; a woman doesn’t want to join a community if it won’t be around long.

We are faithful to the Church, and we live an authentic prayer life.

We’re a youthful community, which is appealing to young women, and a joyful community. Ask our new sisters who come to live with us what they first notice about our community, and I think they’ll say, “Abundant joy.”

We also have an identifiable habit. I travel frequently, and I don’t seem to have a moment to myself. People are always coming up to me, asking to pray for their intentions or saying how nice it is to see a sister in habit. Children want to touch my rosary beads. The world is frantic for God. Helping them find him is part of our spiritual motherhood.

We’re devoted to prayer. As Dominicans, first we pray, then we go out and teach. In addition to daily Mass and all of our devotions, we added a daily Eucharistic Holy Hour. The Eucharist defines who we are. It’s true for all of our sisters, wherever they are.

Great story about the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist! I have heard so many positive things about this religious order of sisters. They are a great and positive example of religious consecrated life. Wish there were more dedicated sisters/religious communities and enough of them to fill every Catholic school. Lucky those students who are being educated by them - the future church will be better off with this kind of authentic Catholic education. Maybe the LCWR could learn a thing or two from these good sisters??

I know that there are other great traditional religious communities of women and men in our church and I’ve read their numbers are growing rapidly. Our church will live on because they live out and teach the truth and lead by positive example. I suggest more stories about these religious communities and all the positive they are bringing to our church during these challenging and confusing times. Long may these orders live and thrive in numbers.

How refreshing to see the dedication of these women. I wish more of our Catholic schools could have sisters like them teaching in them and perhaps less of them would be forced to close for lack of enrollment. Why would people be willing to pay tuition when the education their children receive many times is the same as in a secular, public education setting? God bless these sisters with many more vocations.

It is refreshing to see this beautiful group of women who are dedicated to the Church. Today, Sisters are in lay clothing, they are living on their own, they make scandalous statements about the Church; in short, they are about as far away from the vision of their foundress as they can be. This is why they are disappearing and not attracting new members.

God bless you, Sisters for your wonderful work and for the beautiful example that you give us!

Posted by Gabriel on Thursday, Jan, 30, 2014 3:02 AM (EDT):

Those religious orders which are basically dying out should meditate on these and similar stories and recognize what the Holy Spirit is telling them. It is never too late to learn. It is all about fidelity to the Spirit of God with no excuses or rationalizations.

Posted by Mary Clare Evans on Thursday, Jan, 30, 2014 1:05 AM (EDT):

“The world is frantic for God”. Thank you Sister, how very true!

Posted by STEPHEN on Thursday, Jan, 30, 2014 12:21 AM (EDT):

My Brother has the privilege to be taught by the DSMME in Phoenix at St. Mary’s High School. It is a great addition to the already rich tradition of the school and their faithfulness to praying for their students and families and religious life is a true witness to the school and families who encounter these young joyful Dominican sisters.

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